Melodrama and Other Games

Overview

This collection of games includes new games as well as variations on existing ones. For every game, there is a poster – a visual poem that also works as a score/instruction/recipe for how to play.

Not long ago, the streets were a playground that was safe for children. Street games are one of the oldest forms of 'social software'; they belong to the commons, and, through limited means, they provide a space for conviviality.

Curiously, games are not passed from adults to children but from children to children, in a way that prevents their disappearance despite the increasing privatisation of leisure. Yet after a millennium of endurance, they are at risk of extinction. First came the car, then television, then video games and then – what is often feared to be the last nail in the coffin – mobile devices.

The aim of these posters is to remind us of certain games, and they can then be dispersed to others. They are given free of charge; the only price is to play the game. This is a warm-up phase in the recovery of the street and the courtyard as a realm for humans rather than machines.


GENERAL RULES


1. Everybody who plays a game gets a poster.
2. There is no limit to the number of games you can play.
3. Even if nobody is watching, don’t cheat! You can’t take the poster unless you’ve played the game!
4. For some games you need a partner; don’t be shy about asking strangers to join you.
5. Feel free to play the games inside or outside, but bring the props back to the space after playing.
6. The fun doesn’t stop here – you can play the games with your friends and family at home.


2013

This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 11

Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation